Cyberpunk 2077 Sequel Development Is Reportedly Headed by Phantom Liberty Director

Cyberpunk 2077 development is currently focused on getting Phantom Liberty in players’ hands on September 26. The DLC comes with a total overhaul of the game, providing veteran and new players with a streamlined skill and ability system, a split between armor stats and the cosmetics you’re wearing, and vehicle combat. The best part is that most of that is free. Phantom Liberty itself is something you’ll need to purchase, but the update that comes alongside it will be baked into the base game. If everything hits like developer CD Projekt Red wants it to, this is going to be quite the accomplishment for director Gabe Amatengelo, which is important because it sounds like he’ll be continuing in that role when development shifts to Cyberpunk 2077‘s sequel.

In an interview with Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier from Summer Game Fest, Amatangelo confirmed that he will be the director of the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel. We’ve known that CD Projekt Red was going to make a sequel to the game for quite some time thanks to some of its various financial reports. However, it’s interesting to hear that Amatangelo will be taking over the reins. Hopefully, that means that the DLC and free update are being well-received internally and the work he’s done to improve a game that launched in a somewhat broken state is being rewarded. Fortunately, we only have to wait a few more months to see for ourselves if that is the case.

Also a little scoop in here: Amatangelo, who started in 2020 and became director of Phantom Liberty a year later, told me that after this he will direct the sequel to Cyberpunk 2077

— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) June 14, 2023

Alongside the revelation about his position, Schreier also said that Amatangelo confirmed the sequel will be using Unreal instead of the REDegine that the company has been using since The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings on PC. We heard last year that the next game in The Witcher franchise would be the first title to use Unreal, with Phantom Liberty still being made on REDengine, so this reveal seems to confirm that CD Projekt will be leaving behind its old engine in favor of Epic’s engine for the foreseeable future.

Regardless of the new engine, Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty is looking to be a return to form for CD Projekt after the original release’s shaky launch. Obviously, the developers have fixed things since, but this update should be the injection of quality that many felt was missing upon release. Phantom Liberty comes to PlayStation, Xbox, and PC consoles on September 26.